Smogon Tour Incident

Head TD

Recently, an investigation with the aim of unveiling claims of certain users involved in a DDoSing scandal to disconnect players in Smogon Tours was conducted. Upon thorough investigation, the claims were found to be true. The users involved in the DDoSing include kd24, locopoke, Faint, and an unfamiliar name known as Rudy, with each having different levels of involvement in the DDoSing. IP addresses were gotten a hold of and said IP addresses were used to disconnect users, with user Rudy believed to be the one who enacted the DDoSing by using the IP addresses he was provided with. The details regarding their level of involvement will not be discussed here.

While originally quiet about the entire ordeal until recently, locopoke helped to bring the truth regarding the DDoSing to surface by providing logs and other details about the DDoSing once the investigating started to pick up, with the other parties involved confessing to being involved in some way. While we thank locopoke and the others for their assistance in uncovering what happened, it does not change the fact that they participated in assisting with the DDoSing and originally hid their knowledge of what took place.

Given the severity of the actions, the consequences must be served. As stated above, Rudy was the person who did the DDoSing, and kd24, locopoke, and Faint had a hand in the act by posting IP addresses, not actually DDoSing people themselves. After long discussions, their punishment came out to be the following:

kd24 is receiving a year long tournament ban for his actions. He will be allowed to finish participating in the current tournaments he is in, including his assistant manager position in SPL. kd24 receiving the longest punishment isn't to say he was the mastermind behind the entire scandal or was the main culprit behind disconnecting users.

locopoke will be receiving a tournament ban until the start of this years World Cup, which is roughly six months from now. Like kd24, he will be allowed to continue playing in any current tournaments he is in, SPL included.

Similarly to locopoke, Faint will be receiving a tournament ban until the start of this years World Cup. He is allowed to continue participating in SPL and any current tournament he is involved in.

Seeing as we don't even know who Rudy is, he cannot be punished unfortunately. Let it be known that DDoSing is an illegal activity. If we knew who he was, he would face more severe punishments. We apologize to all of those affected by this scandal. We were unaware what was happening behind the scenes until a few weeks ago, and iconic was even a victim of one of the DDoS attacks - poor fella. Thank you for reading and let it be known that cheating in Smogon Tour or tournaments in general won't go unpunished.

On behalf of locopoke and myself, we can't really begin to apologize enough for the actions we took a part in (assisting in a DDoS). We undoubtedly frustrated and screwed over a lot of people in what was supposed to just be a joke. But what we did wasn't a joke and sadly we realized it far too late. It started as just friends messing around but it quickly snowballed into something so much bigger and we are responsible for that.

I never planned on it going as far as it did, nor did I ever think it would be used to our benefit. When it was, I didn't come forward and put a stop to it like I should have. I took advantage of the illegal assistance I was given and for that, I'm truly sorry. I lied to authority when I was asked if I was suspicious of the help and again for that, I'm truly sorry.

If you're questioning just how sincere this regret and apology is, know that I never abused or took a part in these actions after that Smogon Tour. I know what we did was wrong and I wanted to break free of it as quickly as it started. Our failure to do resulted in an unfair tournament and probably cost someone a chance at their glory.

While I didn't wish to use it for my own benefit, it ended up happening and I didn't step forward. So again, all I can say is I am deeply sorry and that I accept my tournament ban. Thank you and sorry.

Head TD

I made some edits to the OP by mentioning a person by the name of Rudy. I neglected to mention him originally and did so now in order to clear up some confusion regarding the DDoSing. kd24 also asked me if he could write more about his involvement, and I will honor the request. Below are his words.

Some people are incorrectly filling in the blanks from what it seems. I'm sure people are jumping to conclusions all over the place so let me just fill in the facts of my role in this:

1.) I did not discover nor come up with the idea of knocking people offline during Tour. I was asked by my friends to post an IP of this annoying guy and so I (mistakenly) did. I did this a couple of times afterwards despite knowing they were being knocked off PO.

2.) I did not maliciously post IPs to knock off my opponents nor did I ask anyone to do it for me. It was pretty apparent that the group I was talking to had done it and I was stuck in a spot where I was too afraid to come forward, as I already had participated in trolling random users.

3.) When it was obvious my opponents were DDoSed, I told everyone in the group to not do something like that to cheat again. As far as I know, they didn't.

4.) I thought that what was happening was just a PO troll/glitch. When I found out that what I was assisting was a DDoS, I pmed Kevin Garrett my concerns and we agreed to not ever play a role in it again. I did not as anyone who was there can attest to.

I deserve my punishment for my failure to step forward after I benefited from what happened, but I did not cheat nor did my friends ever use it to cheat. It was done as a troll that went too far when other users decided to put things in their own hands.